Recent Publications - Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation

Recent Publications involving personnel from IRMII, with superscripts denoting graduate students (^M = masters; ^D = doctoral) and Post-doctoral Researchers (^P) or Researchers (^R)) working in the Center.

2024

Pratson, L. F., Foster, B. T.^D and G. W. Characklis. “Impacts of Recent Flash Droughts along the Mississippi River on Corn and Soybean Prices,” Water Resources Research (in review)

Amonkar, Y.^P, Pahel-Short, C.^M, Zeighami, A., Su, Y.^D, Kern, J. D. and G. W. Characklis,” A Composite Index-based Instrument for Managing the Financial Risk of Variable Hydrometeorology for Electric Utilities,” Earth’s Future (in review)

Cuppari, R. I.^D, Denaro, S.^P, Su, Y.^D, Kern, J. D. and G. W. Characklis, “Comparing Alternatives for Managing Hydrometeorological Financial Risk for Hydropower Suppliers,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (in review)

Hirsch, Z. M.^M, Zeff, H.B.^R, Gupta, R. S., Vernon, C. R., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis, “Two-Way Option Contracts that Facilitate Adaptive Water Reallocation in the Western United States,” Earth’s Future (in review)

Zeff, H. B.^R, DeFelice, N., Su, Y.^D, Percha, B., Teitelbaum, S., McGuinn, L. and G. W. Characklis, “Protecting Public Health and Preserving the Financial Viability of North Carolina’s Critical Health Care Facilities during Infectious Disease Outbreaks,” PLOS ONE (in review)

Singh, S., Quinn, J., Kern, J. D., Cuppari, R. I.^D and G. W. Characklis, “Exploring the benefits of integrated energy-water management in reducing economic and ecological environmental tradeoffs, Environmental Research-Energy (in press)

Cuppari, R. I.^D, Fernandez-Bou, A. S., Characklis, G. W., Nocco, M., Ramirez, M. and M. Abou-Najm, “Drivers of Agrivoltaic Perception in California and North Carolina,” Environmental Research-Food Systems (in press)

Hamilton, A. L., Reed, P.M., Gupta, R.S., Zeff, H.B. and G.W. Characklis (2024). “Resilient water infrastructure partnerships in institutionally complex systems face challenging supply and financial risk tradeoffs,” Nature Communications, 15, 7354, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51660-8

Zeff, H. B.^R, Hadjimichael, A., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2024), “Using financial contracts to facilitate informal leases within a Western United States water market based on prior appropriation,” Earth’s Future, 12, e2023EF003739. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003739

2023

Haley, M.^M, D. Gorelick^P, G. W. Characklis, R. Kleiman, J. Homer and K. Oikonomou (2023). “Improving Resiliency for Large-Scale Water Suppliers Facing Drought-Related Financial Risk,” IEEE Xplore, doi: 10.1109/RWS58133.2023.10284680.

Gold, D. F., Reed, P. M., Gorelick, D. E.^P and G. W. Characklis (2023). “Advancing regional water supply management and infrastructure investment pathways that are equitable, robust, adaptive and cooperatively stable,” Water Resources Research, 59, e2022WR033671. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR033671

Thomson, H.^M, Zeff, H. B.^R, Kleiman, R.^M, Sebastian, A. and G. W. Characklis (2023). “Systemic financial risk arising from residential flood losses,” Earth’s Future, 11(4), e2022EF003206, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF00320

Gorelick, D. E.^P, Gold, D. F., Asefa, T., Svrdlin, S., Wang, H., Wanakule, N., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2023). “Water supply infrastructure investment requires adaptive financial assessment: an enhanced exploratory modeling framework to evaluate coupled financial and water supply dynamics, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 149(3), 04022084. DOI:10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-5863

Fernandez-Bou, A. S., Rodríguez-Flores, J. M., Guzman, A., Ortiz-Partida, J. P., Classen-Rodriguez, L. P., Sánchez-Pérez, P. A., Valero-Fandiño, J., Pells, C., Flores‑Landeros, H., Sandoval-Solís, S., Characklis, G. W., Harmon, T. C., McCullough, M. and J. Medellín-Azuara (2023). “Water, environment, and socioeconomic justice in California: a multi‑benefit framework,” Science of the Total Environment, 858, 159963, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159963

Gorelick, D. E.^P, Gold, D. F., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2023). “Designing water utility cooperative agreements: Lessons learned in North Carolina,” Journal of the American Water Works Association, 115(1), pp. 32-40, doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2034

2022

Kleiman, R.^M, Characklis, G. W. and J. D. Kern (2022). “Managing Weather- and Market Price-related Financial Risks in Algal Biofuel Production,” Renewable Energy, 200, 111-124, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.09.104

Denaro, S.^P, Cuppari, R. I.^D, Kern, J. D., Su, Y.^D and G. W. Characklis (2022). “Assessing the Bonneville Power Administration’s Financial Risk Management Strategies,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 148(10), 05022006, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001590

Gorelick, D. E.^D, Gold, D. F., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2022), “Impact of inter-utility agreements on cooperative regional water infrastructure investment and management pathways,” Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR030700, https://doi. org/10.1029/2021WR030700

Su, Y.^D, Kern, J. D. and G. W. Characklis (2022), “The Effects of Retail Load Defection on a Major Electric Utility’s Exposure to Weather Risk,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 148(3), https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001531

Hamilton, A. H.^D, Zeff, H. B.^R, Characklis, G. W. and P. M. Reed (2022). “Resilient California water portfolios require infrastructure investment partnerships that are viable for all partners,” Earth’s Future, e2021EF002573

Gold, D. F., Reed, P. M., Gorelick, D. E.^D, and G. W. Characklis (2022). “Power and Pathways: Exploring robustness, cooperative stability and power relationships in regional infrastructure investment and water supply management portfolio pathways,” Earth’s Future, 10, e2021EF002472, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002472

Bales, J., Bhaskar, A., Characklis, G., Flores, A., Gilmore, T., Gomez-Velez, J., Grant, G., Jefferson, A., Khan, S., Ledford, S., Loheide, S., Miller, G., Mishra, A., Nolin, A., VanBriesen, J., Ward, A., Zarnetske, J. and M. Zimmer (2022). “COVID-19 Impacts Highlight the Need for Holistic Evaluation of Research and in the Hydrologic Sciences,” Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030930

Hamilton, A. L.^D, Characklis, G. W. and P. M. Reed (2022). “From Stream Flows to Cash Flows: Leveraging Evolutionary Multi-Objective Direct Policy Search to Manage Hydrologic Financial Risks,” Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR029747, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR029747

2021

Hill, J.^M, Kern, J. D. Rupp, D. E., Voisin, N. and G. W. Characklis (2021). “The Effects of Climate Change on Interregional Electricity Market Dynamics on the U.S. West Coast,” Earth’s Future, 9, e2021EF002400, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002400

Vicuna, S., Ricalde, I., Melo, O., Tomlinson, J., Harou, J. J. and G. W. Characklis (2021). “Assessing Tradeoffs on the Design of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Water Utilities,” Journal of Environmental Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114035

Kleiman, R.^M, Characklis, G. W., Kern, J. D. and R. Gerlach (2021). “Characterizing Weather-related Biophysical and Financial Risk in Algal Biofuel Production,” Applied Energy, 294, 116960, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116960

Zeff, H. B.^P, Hamilton, A. L.^D, Malek, K., Herman, J. D., Cohen, J. S., Medellin-Azuara, J., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2021). “California’s Food-Energy-Water System: An Open-Source Simulation Model of Adaptive Surface and Groundwater Management in the Central Valley,” Environmental Modelling and Software, 141, 105052 https://doi.org/10.31224/osf.io/sqr7e

Cuppari, R., I.^M, Higgins, C. W. and Characklis, G. W. (2021). “Financial Analysis of Co-locating Agricultural Production and Solar Power Generation,” Applied Energy, 291, 116809, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116809

Malek, K., Reed, P., Zeff, H. B.^R, Hamilton, A. L.^D, Wrzesien, M., Holtzman, N. Steinschneider, S. Herman, J., & Pavelsky, T. (2021) “Bias correction of hydrologic projections strongly impacts inferred climate vulnerabilities in institutionally complex water systems.” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Volume 148, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001493

2020

Hamilton, A. L.^D, Characklis, G. W. and P. M. Reed (2020). “Managing financial risk tradeoffs for hydropower generation using snowpack-based index contracts,” Water Resources Research, 56(10), e2020WR027212. DOI:10.1029/2020WR027212.

Gupta, R. S., Hamilton, A. L.^D, Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2020). “Can Modern Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms Discover High-Dimensional Financial Risk Portfolio Tradeoffs for Snow-Dominated Water-Energy Systems?”, Advances in Water Resources, 145, 103718. DOI:10.1016/j.advwatres.2020.103718.

Su, Y.^D, Kern, J. D., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis. (2020). “Compound Hydrometeorological Extremes Acting Across Multiple Timescales Drive Volatility in California Electricity Market Prices and Emissions,” Applied Energy, 276. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115541

Trindade, B., Reed, P. M., Gold, D. F., Zeff, H. B.^P and G. W. Characklis (2020). “Water Pathways: An open source stochastic simulation framework for water supply portfolio management and infrastructure investments,” Environmental Modelling and Software, 104772, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104772.

Denaro, S.^P, Castelletti, A., Giuliani, M. and G. W. Characklis (2020). “Insurance portfolio diversification through bundling for competing agents exposed to uncorrelated drought and flood risks,” Water Resources Research, 56, e2019WR026443. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026443

Zeff, H. B.^P, Characklis, G. W. and W. N. Thurman (2020). “How do price surcharges impact water utility incentives to pursue alternative supplies during drought,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 146(6), doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001228

Meyer, E. S.^D, Foster, B. F.^D, Characklis, G. W., Brown, C. M. and A. J. Yates (2020). “Integrating physical and financial approaches to manage environmental financial risk on the Great Lakes,” Water Resources Research, 56, e2019WR024853, doi.org/10.1029/2019WR024853

Su, Y.^D, Kern, J. D., Denaro, S.^P, Hill, J.^M, Reed, P. M. Sun, Y., Cohen, J. and G. W. Characklis (2020). “An open source model for quantifying risks in bulk electric power systems from spatially and temporally correlated hydrometeorological processes,” Environmental Modelling and Software, 126, doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104667

Baum, R.^D and G. W. Characklis (2020). “Mitigating drought-related financial risks for water utilities via integration of risk pooling and reinsurance,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 146(6): 05020007, doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001202

2019

Gorelick, D. E.^D, Lin, L., Zeff, H. B.^P, Kim, Y., Vose, J. M., Coulston, J. W., Wear, D. N., Band, L. E., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2019). “Accounting for adaptive water supply management when quantifying climate and landcover change vulnerability,” Water Resources Research, 56, e2019WR025614, doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025614

Gold, D. F., Reed, P. M., Trindade, B. C. and G. W. Characklis (2019). “Conflicts in Coalitions: Navigating multi-city robustness conflicts to discover cooperative safe operating spaces for regional water supply portfolios,” Water Resources Research, 55, pp. 9024–9050, doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025462

Trindade, B., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2019). “Deeply Uncertain Pathways: Integrated Multi-City Regional Water Supply Infrastructure Investment and Portfolio Management,” Advances in Water Resources, 134, 103442, doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.103442

Gorelick, D. E.^D, Zeff, H. B.^P, Hughes, J., Eskaf, S. and G. W. Characklis (2019). “Benefits and tradeoffs of cooperation: exploring the relative merits of treatment and capacity sharing agreements between water utilities,” Journal of the American Water Works Association, 111(9), pp 26-40. doi.org/10.1002/awwa.1359

Zeff, H. B.^P, Kaczan, D., Characklis, G. W., Jeuland, M. and B. Murray (2019). “The potential benefits of groundwater trading and reformed water rights in the Diamond Valley, Nevada,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 145(6), doi.org:10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001032

2018

Kern, J. D.^R, Gorelick, D. E.^D, Characklis, G. W. and C. M. Macklin (2018). “Multi-Objective Optimal Siting of Algal Biofuel Production with Municipal Wastewater Treatment in Watersheds with Nutrient Trading Markets,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001018.

Gorelick, D. E.^M, Zeff, H. B.^P, Characklis, G. W. and P. M. Reed (2018). “Integrating raw water transfers into an Eastern United States management context,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 144 (9), doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000966

Baum R.^D, Characklis, G. W. and M. L. Serre (2018). “Effects of Geographic Diversification on Risk Pooling to Mitigate Drought-Related Financial Losses for Water Utilities,” Water Resources Research, 54, doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021468

Mozenter, Z. D., Yates, A. J., Schnier, K. A., Hughes, J. A. and G. W. Characklis. (2018) “Understanding Water Utility Attitudes Toward Water Transfers and Risk: Pretest Results,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000895

Baum, R.^D, Characklis, G.W., and M. L.Serre. (2018) “Effects of Geographic Diversification on Risk Pooling to Mitigate Drought-Related Financial Losses for Water Utilities,” Water Resources Research, doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021468

2017

Denaro, S., Castelletti, A., Giuliani, M. and G. W. Characklis. (2017) “Fostering Cooperation in Power Asymmetrical Water Systems by Use of Direct Release Rules and Indexbased Insurance Schemes,” Advances in Water Resources, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.09.021

Kern, J. D.^R and G. W. Characklis. “Evaluating the Physical and Financial Vulnerability of Power Systems to Drought Under Climate Uncertainty and an Evolving Generation Mix,” Environmental Science & Technology, 51, pp. 8815-8823, doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b05460.

Trindade, B. C., Reed, P. M., Herman, J. D., Zeff, H. B.^D and G. W. Characklis (2017). “Reducing Regional Drought Vulnerabilities and Multi-City Robustness Conflicts Using Many-Objective Optimization Under Deep Uncertainty,” Advances in Water Resources, 104, pp. 195-209, doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.03.023.

Su, Y.^M, Kern, J. D.^R and G. W. Characklis (2017). “The Impact of Wind Power Growth and Hydrological Uncertainty on Financial Losses from Oversupply Events in Hydropower-dominated Systems,” Applied Energy, 194, pp. 172-183, doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.067.

Meyer, E. S.^D, Characklis, G. W. and C. M. Brown (2017). “Evaluating Financial Risk Management Strategies Under Climate Change for Hydropower Producers on the Great Lakes,” Water Resources Research, 53, doi:10.1002/2016WR019889.

2016

Kern, J. D.^R, Hise, A. M.^M, Characklis, G. W., Gerlach, R., Viamajala, S. and R. D. Gardner (2016). “Using Life-Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis in a Real Options Framework to Inform the Design of Algal Biofuel Production Facilities,” Bioresource Technology, 225, doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.11.116.

Kern, J. D.^P and G. W. Characklis (2016). “Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing, Low Natural Gas Prices and the Financial Cost of Ramp Rate Restrictions at Hydroelectric Dams,” Energy Economics, 61, doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2016.12.002.

Zeff, H. B.^D, , Herman, J. D., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2016). “Cooperative Drought Adaptation: Integrating Infrastructure Development, Conservation and Water Transfers into Adaptive Policy Pathways,” Water Resources Research, 52, doi:10.1002/2016WR018771.

Herman, J. D., Zeff, H. B.^D, Lamontagne, J. R., Reed, P. M. and Characklis, G.W. (2016). “Synthetic Drought Scenario Generation to Support Bottom-Up Water Supply Vulnerability Assessments,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000701.

Hise, A. M.^M, Characklis, G. W., Kern, J. D.^P, Gerlach, R., Viamajala, S., Gardner, R. D. and A. Vadlamani (2016). “Evaluating the Relative Impacts of Operational and Financial Factors on the Competitiveness of an Algal Biofuel Production Facility,” Bioresource Technology, 220, pp. 271-281. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.08.050.

Meyer, E. S.^D, Characklis, G. W., Brown, C. M. and P. Moody (2016). “Hedging the Financial Risk from Water Scarcity for Great Lakes Shipping,” Water Resources Research, 52, pp. 227-245, doi:10.1002/2015WR017855.

2015

Brown, C. M., Lund, J. R., Cai, X., Reed, P. M., Zagona, E. A., Ostfeld, A., Hall, J. W., Characklis, G. W., Yu, W. and L. Brekke (2015). “The Future of Water Resource Systems Analysis: Toward a Scientific Framework for Sustainable Water Management,” Water Resources Research, 51, doi:10.1002/2015WR017114.

Foster, B. F.^M, Kern, J. D.^P and G. W. Characklis (2015). “Mitigating Hydrologic Financial Risk in Hydropower Generation Using Index-Based Financial Instruments,” Water Resources and Economics, 10, pp. 45-67, doi:10.1016/j.wre.2015.04.001.

Kern, J. D.^D, Characklis, G. W. and B. F. Foster ^M (2015) “Natural Gas Price Uncertainty and the Cost Effectiveness of Hedging Against Low Hydropower Revenues Caused by Drought,” Water Resources Research, 51, doi:10.1002/2014WR016533.

Herman, J. D., Reed, P. M., Zeff, H. B.^D and G. W. Characklis (2015). “How Should Robustness be Defined for Water Systems Planning Under Change,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000509, 04015012.

2014

Herman, J. D., Zeff, H. B.^D , Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2014). “Beyond Optimality: Multi-Stakeholder Robustness Tradeoffs for Regional Water Portfolio Planning Under Uncertainty,” Water Resources Research, doi:10.1002/2014WR015338

Kern, J. D.^D., Patino-Echeverri, D. and G. W. Characklis (2014). “The Impacts of Wind Power Integration on Sub-Daily Variation in River Flows Downstream of Hydroelectric Dams,” Environmental Science & Technology, doi:10.1021/es405437h.

Zeff, H.B.^D, Kasprzyk, J. R., Herman, J. D., Reed, P. M. and G. W. Characklis (2014). “Navigating Financial and Supply Reliability Tradeoffs in Regional Drought Portfolios,” Water Resources Research, 50, doi:10.1002/2013WR015126.

Kern, J. D.^D, Patino-Echeverri, D. and G. W. Characklis (2014). “An Integrated Reservoir Power System Model for Evaluating the Impacts of Wind Integration on Hydropower Resources,” Renewable Energy, 71, pp. 553-562.

Caldwell, C.^M . and G. W. Characklis (2014). “Impact of Contract Structure and Risk Aversion on Inter-utility Water Transfer Agreements,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 140(1), pp. 100-111.